


No Trifling Leaves

by inksheddings



Category: Loveless
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-03-15
Updated: 2007-03-15
Packaged: 2017-10-16 00:04:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/166282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inksheddings/pseuds/inksheddings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Soubi had never followed the wind to see where it would take him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Trifling Leaves

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MidniteMarauder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidniteMarauder/gifts).



Despite the autumn chill, Soubi was sweating profusely. He had a deadline, a half-finished painting, and a skeptical sensei to satisfy, so he'd been working hard all morning and through the afternoon. He wasn't stressed, just eager. A week-long break was on the horizon, and he intended to turn his assignment in on time and spend every free moment he could with Ritsuka.

But he was finished for the day, brushes cleaned and paints put away. As Soubi stood looking over his work so far, he felt his long-sleeved shirt cling to his skin, moist and uncomfortable. He felt the dampness along his hairline, under his pony-tail, and as he wiped away a drop of sweat from his forehead his hand came away blue and green. Paint and sweat decorated his body, and he had to admit, he felt pretty gross.

Soubi turned off the nearly useless heater – it either blew too hot or not hot enough – and stripped down to his underwear, draping his clothes over a chair so they'd dry and air out. He took a beer out of the fridge, popped it open, and drank half of it in one gulp. He walked over to the window and opened it wide. Setting his beer down next to him, he propped his arms on the sill and leaned out a little to let the cool air dry the rest of the sweat off his upper body.

The sun was going down, but it wasn't dark enough for the street lights to switch on. The breeze was cool, but not icy. If felt heavenly, and Soubi closed his eyes, letting the sounds of the wind and distant traffic lull his senses. He wondered what Ritsuka was doing, if he was out with Yayoi and Yuiko or locked in his room with his computer. Soubi felt momentarily torn, because neither option made him terribly happy. If he was with his friends, then he was having fun without Soubi. If he was locked in his room, he might be lonely. Soubi only wanted what was best for Ritsuka, but differentiating between Ritsuka's needs and his own had not gotten easier over time.

Horns honked in the distance, and as he rested his head on his arms, Soubi could almost swear he heard Kio shouting at him – _Soubi! We're going to be late for class again! Get your skinny ass down here!_ – from the street below. Leaves fluttered noisily by and he recalled that first time in the park with Ritsuka; their first kiss and first battle with Breathless. Again, he wondered what Ritsuka was doing, and when he heard the sound of running footsteps his head snapped up and his eyes opened, wide with hope...

Before he saw the children, however, he heard their high-pitched voices and knew immediately that none of them were Ritsuka. As they rounded the corner and came into view, Soubi's eyes got a little wider still as he wondered just what they were doing.

Three girls, in coats and scarves and hats to match, were running down the middle of the street, arms wide and waving, bodies twirling around and around. They laughed as they nearly ran into each other, and their shoes were loud on the pavement, almost as if they were tap-dancing down the street.

Soubi couldn't help but straighten up and smile at their antics – they looked maybe a year or two younger than Ritsuka – and as a particularly strong gust of wind made him shiver, the girls squealed and their skirts ruffled and their bodies moved with the wind farther down the street until they were now right beneath Soubi's window. The girls _were_ dancing, to the beat of the wind, letting it push and pull them toward whatever destination, and they were delighted to be at its mercy.

Leaves. They danced like leaves on the wind.

As the girls continued down the street, their laughter fading as they turned the next corner, he felt a slight ache; a bit of longing. Soubi had never followed the wind to see where it would take him. Seimei's orders hadn't been as impulsive as the direction of the wind; and while Ritsuka _still_ didn't like giving orders, let alone the type that hid dark and future purposes, Soubi still only breathed freely when Ritsuka relented and tugged on his chain – even if he only tugged gently.

Soubi surprised himself by wondering what it would be like to just... go with the flow. No orders, no purpose, just the breeze and open spaces.

Ah well.

Soubi, getting chilly now that the sweat had dried from his body, stepped back inside his apartment. He finished his beer in another large gulp, and reached out to close the window. A huge gust roared inside, disturbing the sleeves of his paint-spattered shirt where it hung over the back of a chair. The sleeves reminded Soubi of the leaves, which in turn reminded him of the dancing girls, and...

Soubi left the window open and made his way to the door, setting his hair free from the pony tail as he went. He opened the door wide and immediately created a deliciously cool crosswind throughout his small living space. Raising his arms Soubi backed up until he stood in the middle of his home and once more closed his eyes. He heard his empty beer can fall over from where he'd placed it on the kitchen counter and roll around the on the floor. He heard the plastic shower curtain ruffling behind him. He felt the wind tickle his still-damp underarm hair. He shivered, and then he let the wind move him. Slightly to the left, then back to the right, pushing his hair in his face and his knee into the futon. He laughed as he caught himself from falling, eyes still closed.

This time the wind pushed him backward, and he heard the beer can move again just before he stepped on it, though at least nothing sharp cut into his foot. He kicked the can out of his way, and a strong gust pushed him to his left, and it kept pushing him until he was going in circles. He found himself backed into the futon again, and he laughed at himself, because shouldn't he know how to avoid the furniture in his own apartment, even with his eyes closed? Some fighter _he_ was.

The life of a leaf (nearly as dangerous the life of a fighter, yet a bit more comical) wasn't quite freedom after all, was it? Not knowing where you were going to end up (or in what condition) wasn't any more liberating than having a master _tell_ you where you were going to end up – and in what condition.

So Soubi stopped. He stopped his arms and his feet, stopped letting the wind dictate his movements. Because he wasn't a leaf, he was just some nearly-naked guy dancing in his apartment. He stopped and he opened his eyes and...

Came face-to-face with a red-faced, pointy-eared, and fully-dressed Ritsuka.

Okay, so maybe Soubi'd never been entirely free a day in his life, but he was free enough now to make a fool of himself in front of the most important person in his life.

"Ritsuka-"

"Soubi, why are you- _What_ are you-" Ritsuka took a deep breath as he put his face in his hands and shook his head slowly. "Couldn't you at least have closed the door?" he asked, his voice muffled through his hands.

Soubi laughed. "So it's not my nudity you object to?"

Ritsuka's hands dropped from his face and his jaw dropped to the floor but he was apparently at a loss for words. His eyes seemed to know what to do, however, as they scanned Soubi from top to bottom before Ritsuka realized what he was doing and turned an even brighter shade of red. Soubi just kept laughing, and it must have been contagious because amazingly enough Ritsuka started laughing too.

Soon enough, they were both laughing hard, more forceful than the wind Soubi had tried to dance with.

And maybe that was freedom, Soubi thought. Friends laughing like loons when they should be closing doors and windows and getting dressed for dinner. Just getting dressed, actually.

But freedom... maybe freedom meant having someone with you when life took you where it wanted you to go. Maybe it meant having someone to pick you up when the wind knocked you into a wall or flat on your back.

As Ritsuka handed him a clean shirt, still laughing and trying hard to avert his eyes, Soubi couldn't help but think that maybe... maybe freedom wasn't all that important as long as Soubi had Ritsuka's smile.

 **END**


End file.
